I have known writers who paid no damned attention whatever to the rules of grammar and rhetoric and somehow made the language behave for them.

The natural habitat of the tongue is the left cheek.

In my later years I have sought to become simpler, straighter and purer in my handling of the language. I've had many writing heroes, writers who have influenced me. Of the ones still alive, I can think of E.B. White. I certainly admire the pure, crystal stream of his prose. When I was very young as a sportswriter I knowingly and unashamedly imitated others. I had a series of heroes who would delight me for a while and I'd imitate them--Damon Runyon, Westbrook Pegler, Joe Williams.

It's no accident that of all the monuments left of the Greco- Roman culture the biggest is the ballpark, the Colosseum, the YankeeStadium of ancient times.

Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved.

Dying is no big deal. Living is the trick.

My best girl is dead.